If you those of you that were here this morning with Mike Erickson he was talking about all the physical things that he has to push through and it's kind of like Lord bring it on I'll do what I can until you Say no more and that's what we're gonna do for the message this morning as well Just going to continue to preach on and trust that the Lord will give me voice for that. So turn back to Matthew chapter 7 Sermon on the Mount Jesus is teaching his disciples a larger following at this early point in his ministry. And again, he is teaching them the character and the expectation of kingdom citizens. Those, as we know more fully now, And we have the full extent of God's word. Kingdom citizens are those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for a righteousness that they cannot have on their own. And Jesus said that in the Sermon on the Mount. We've looked at that and mentioned that many times, that these disciples needed a righteousness that far exceeded the righteousness of the religious leaders around them. So through Christ and through faith in him We have entrance into the kingdom And so folks even more today than these disciples who were listening to Jesus Christ We have the ability to be able to live this way because we have the Holy Spirit residing in us working in us and So as we've seen recently Jesus says don't judge others don't always have a cynical Angry bitter spirit towards others, but love hopeth all things we can do that because we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts When we're tempted to fear and be anxious We can let the power of the Spirit calm us and strengthen us We can be motivated to prayer and to do better and be more consistent in our prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit that resides within us. That the Bible says he even helps us to pray, right? When we can't pray. There's no excuse. We can live as kingdom citizens in a more complete way today than even Jesus' audience at this point. And he's calling them to follow him. That he is the answer. to their residency in his kingdom that he will one day bring and initiate in. So Matthew 7, 7 through 12, we've talked a lot about prayer as we've studied this, and here is another example of that. And I'll just entitle this, I kinda shortened the title even this week, I'll call it Dependence in Prayer, make it real simple. So let's read together 7 through 12. Actually 7 through 11. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks it will be open. Or which of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, give him a serpent? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more will your heavenly Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?" Such a simple truth that Jesus is portraying here. And yet again, this is one of those that we tend to misunderstand and that we misrepresent. It may be one of your favorite passages, maybe next to that one about judging because you shouldn't judge me. Well, we've discussed what that really means and hopefully you have a much more balanced approach on that now. But this is another one. We come to this and we read ask and it will be given to you. Oh, well, that's great Wow So all I have to do is just go to God and ask him for I guess anything And I'll receive that Well Maybe you have an understanding that there might be a little bit more to that message than just something so simply understood It is a simple concept, but there's so much more that Jesus is portraying here that we need to understand. Have you ever asked for something and been disappointed with the results? Like your birthday or Christmas, you know, people come up, say, hey, what do you want? Or what do you, I have the hardest time at Father's Day, you know, because I've just, we've had Mother's Day and I've been thinking gifts for Leslie and then her, well, her birthday comes up after Father's Day, but I'm still in that mode, and then people come to me and ask what I want for Father's Day. And I'm like, I don't know. I mean, coffee's always my go-to. And if our cupboards are full of coffee, it's like, well, I'm gonna have to think about that. And so I sincerely say that sometimes, but then every so often, the Lord does maybe bring something to mind, maybe with you that you would like, and if it's the right person's asking you, you might just go ahead and say, well, you know, It's up to you, but I really enjoy this. I'd really like this and So your birthday or Father's Day or Christmas comes up and you get the gift and Either it didn't meet expectations or it was the wrong thing and you try it out And I don't know if it's your favorite. It's a favor of coffee or a device or electronic device. It just doesn't meet expectations It's a disappointment Surely all of us have encountered that at some time. And yet what God wants us to understand and what Jesus wants his followers to understand is that God knows exactly what we need. And he will provide it in his time. It's hard with people in gifts. They don't always, even when we tell them what we would like and what we might need, they don't always fully understand our needs. And so the gift might be a little off. But folks, when God gives gifts, he knows exactly what we need. He knows intimately our hearts. And so when we go to him asking him for help, he is able to respond in a way and give good gifts that no one else can do. And so that is the hope even of this this morning. Although we do need to have some understanding about this. So let's look back then at verse seven. And we're going to see that God calls his children, the kingdom citizens, to faithfully persist in prayer. And so when we ask him, the most important aspect of this message, even this morning, is that we're asking independence. Asking God for something requires that we have a spirit of faith and dependence in him. And so verse seven, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. That first phrase, ask and it will be given to you, that does sound kind of all-encompassing because it doesn't seem to put any parameters on it. I had a dear friend in undergrad and college that, She was just a good friend in many respects, and she had fallen in love with a particular young man. And she and I were talking one time about this person that she was praying about and sincerely seeking the Lord's will about. And she came to this concept, and there was also some verses in Proverbs. And she said to me these words. She said, I've been praying. And she said, you know, God's word says that he will give me the desires of my heart. And this young man is the desire of my heart. So of course, if I pray, God's going to give me this young man. Well, actually, that didn't work out quite so well as what she had hoped. And as I was thinking about it, I'm like, you know, I'm not sure that's quite the interpretation that God meant. But at that time, I wanted her to be happy. I'm like, well, sure. Later on, as I've thought back on that, I thought, you know, she was a sweet person, but that's not a good interpretation of that verse. And I hope you would agree with me that that's not the case. The Lord didn't give her that particular young man, but another young man that God had in her life and they'd been happily married. And so, you know, God in his timing did answer her request, but in a way that she had never anticipated. See, what Jesus is not saying here is that if you just ask expecting that I will give you whatever you want. We'll go more into why that is later. But Jesus is talking here rather about dependence. We just had the kids go out for Children's Church this morning. And that's one thing, a lot of times, as we've all experienced, children are very bold and don't hold back a lot of times when they want something. They're willing to ask and ask multiple times for it. If they want something, they're adamant about it. But there are many times, especially with young children, they're asking their parents because They're dependent on them. They know it's the only way that they can receive whatever they're asking is because they're fully dependent on the person they're asking for. Or they're asking the request of. And so that, in essence, is what Jesus is saying here. Not that we will get whatever we ask for, but that we're dependent on him for what we need. And that when we show that dependence, Lord Jesus, I need this. It's obvious to me that I need this in my life. Will you please come and answer my request that God will hear those types of prayers done in sincerity and dependence? One type of prayer would be a prayer for wisdom. Lord, I just need wisdom in this circumstance. There are things that are happening in my life. This person has reacted to me in a certain way. My finances, something came up that was surprising to me. You know, I have a situation with a coworker where I just, we're off kilter and we're not working together well. Lord, I need wisdom. That's just one example of things that we might ask for. Asking for God's wisdom is a wonderful thing to do. James talks about that, doesn't he? That when God allows situations into our life and we have no idea how to respond or what to do, If we ask expecting God will give wisdom, he promises he will do that. He promises he will give us guidance on how to handle that situation. Minds me again the boys growing up they were more dependent obviously when they were certainly when they were babies and infants but as they got older they were able to do their own things and so it got to a point when it was for breakfast or for lunch the boys were big enough to open up the refrigerator and pull things out Many times it would involve the cartons of milk that were there the older boys Could just reach up and grab the milk pour themselves a glass and then just put it right back up no problem But some of our youngers in fact our youngest at some point had a tough time with that now I don't think our boys were specific the older boys were specifically putting it back up before he could get to it I don't think they were that mean but He saw them getting milk and he realized that he couldn't get that without our help. And so he came to us and he made it very clear that he wanted that milk. And so we were able to go over and get it for him, something that he was not able to get on his own. And folks, that's really a very humbling example of how we need to go before the Lord. in full recognition that as little children going to our Heavenly Father and saying, I can't get this. I can't do this. I can't be this without your help. Please help me. I am asking. And God says that's the type of spirit that I respond to and that I hear and that I listen to. Now, I just mentioned that I'm confident that the interpretation here is not that God will just give us anything that we want. But think of the things that Jesus has mentioned so far to these people, to his disciples. He has told them and given them expectations for kingdom citizens that were really quite mind-blowing, right? He is asking them to have a greater righteousness than even the best among them, the religious leaders. He's calling them to that. And so when Jesus says you need to be meek, you need to be long suffering. You need to be patient. You need to stop lusting in your heart. You need to stop having murder in your heart, having so much anger towards others that you feel ill will toward them. You need to change that. You need to have purity. You need to be honest. You need to have sacrificial love towards others that goes beyond what you would normally do for others. You need to be sacrificial in that. You need to meet the needs of the weak. Those that don't have what you have and that are in need. You need to pray and be fervent in prayer. And even in your fasting, make sure that it is sincere and not to judge in all of these things and more and more. And then Jesus says, you need to have a righteousness that goes beyond the best in your society. And his listeners were hearing these things and thinking, I can't live like that. How can I be, how can I do that? Lord, how can I be a kingdom citizen? And I think that in context is what Jesus is saying here. You're right, you can't do it in and of yourself. So ask me for my help. Depend upon me. Lord, I struggle with being patient with people. Just people irritate me. Lord, there's so many irritating people in my life. And Jesus says ask. Have you asked for help? Have you asked for patience and long suffering? Oh, I'm really struggling with lust, pornography, immorality of the heart. Have you asked God, your Heavenly Father, for help in that? Have you asked Him to give you the power and victory? That's an important point. We need to ask independence. Lord, I can't have victory over this sin. Or Lord, I can't see this fruit of the Spirit grow in my life without you. And God says, I'll answer those kinds of prayers. But Jesus isn't done yet. The next thing he says in that first verse, seek and you will find. Now, if we're going to take the interpretation that I did at the beginning, which is the wrong one, to say, ask and it will be given you, and oh, that means anything that I want, the rest of these other two kind of throw a wrench into that. Okay, I ask and I get anything that I want, but then I have to seek and I will find, okay, maybe that's like some sort of treasure map God gives me and I go on a treasure hunt. And then it says, knock and it will be open to you. OK, so I come to a door and there's some sort of secret knock that I just keep knocking. Eventually I get and then I get what I want. You can see how that interpretation breaks down real quick because those next two are much harder to interpret. And so, again, that's not what Jesus is saying, but he's saying the things that we truly need physically and spiritually. That we come to him and ask. So what does it mean to seek? Well, seek indicates a desire for God's will. That we will seek as Jesus is laying out how kingdom citizens ought to live. That we ought to have a desire in our hearts to seek after the things of God. to have his wisdom, to obey his moral will. God gives us a moral will in his scriptures, in his word, that tells us how he expects us to live. And when we seek after that, when we go to God's word and we seek after how he wants us to live and seek to apply his biblical principles to our lives, God says, I will reveal those things to you. So prayer and Bible study, searching out the commandments and principles to guide us in all of our decisions, just like James says, praying for wisdom. I believe in context, that's exactly what Jesus is saying here. Trust me, trust God's word. Take the journey into God's word. In one sense I said treasure map earlier but you could say that God's word is the treasure map to all of the spiritual blessings that we can receive. And then he says finally knock and it will be open to you. Well that's interesting. We hear these verses so many times, but do we really think about what that understands? What does that have to do with asking God for anything? Go out and buy a better door knocker or a better doorbell? What is going on here? And really in context, what he's saying is, is that we must be persistent, knocking, Persistence especially if you really want to get someone's attention People don't like people just going up to their doors any longer and just knocking if they don't know you that might get you into trouble But if you're really persistent about seeing one someone you can knock on that door until there is a response maybe it's an electronic response from their Their electronic door ringer or whatever saying get off my property and But the picture here is one that is persistent until there is a response. In other words, when we go and ask God for something, folks, it can't just be one of these things where we're like, let's just throw it up and see if it works. I'm so desperate. I've tried everything else. I'll just try this prayer once and see if God will answer. And then when we don't get the immediate response that we need, we give up. And we get more despondent. No, we need to persist in prayer. And that really, isn't that a measure? The more we persist in prayer and ask God for something that we know that we need, isn't that then really a measure of our faith? God, many times when it doesn't seem like He's answering our prayer right away for our need, folks, that is actually God training us to depend more on Him. Are you going to continue to ask Him? Are you going to continue to persist in asking Him for what you need? What does God say then? His response to that is verse 8. For everyone who asks, receives. And the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be open. God says, you come to me and you ask for these things that you know you need. Yes, your physical needs, but also your spiritual needs. You seek for the answers in my word. You persist in prayer, not just a one time just to try it, but really faithfully expect that I'm going to answer. And he promises that when we come to him that way, that he will respond. And that is his focus, and that is his point here. The main focus of this passage is God will respond to his children's requests. You know the hymn, right? Do you remember? Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Folks, there's a lot of things that we might be living in misery in because we've just never talked to God and asked Him to help. And yet we can even this morning go to Him and repent of that reliance on self or on other things but God and ask Him for help to depend upon Him and He will answer that request as well. Now I think that Jesus in this, that there is an evangelistic aspect to this and then also an expectation from kingdom citizens as well. The evangelistic aspect is for those who have tried to go it alone and have rejected God and tried to live life by their own standards and by their own wisdom and their own strength. And when the Holy Spirit is doing a work where we realize that in and of ourselves, we can't make life successful, that we need someone other than ourselves, and the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel, points out to us our need for Jesus Christ. That through His suffering and death on the cross and His shed blood, Atones and covers and cleanses our sin That when we go to him and trust him in faith and depend upon him when we ask For Jesus to save us and to cleanse us from all of our sin Folks we need to be confident. We can be confident that he will answer that request and That when you come to Jesus and see the need for your salvation, that Jesus will come and apply his righteousness to you. Because he's already taken all of our sins upon himself. He's done what is necessary. And when the Holy Spirit is guiding us to do that, we need to respond to that in faith. Jesus will answer so I wonder even this morning. Is there still someone that's listening today that were you know in your heart? Maybe you've been playing the game. Maybe you've been Making it look really good as far as being a Christian on the outside and nobody else would know here, but you know That you have not ever fully put your dependence in the work of Jesus Christ for your salvation will today be the day that you will ask and for Him to do that marvelous work in your life, and you will humble yourself before Him, maybe even before the end of the service in your heart, or coming and talking to me at the end of the service, somewhere in the back, that you will humble yourself and ask for Jesus to be your Savior. and experience a glorious relationship and to have your relationship with God be reconciled and know that you're going to heaven one day, never to face the eternity in hell that we all deserve because of our sin. Will you today ask for the gift that Jesus will gladly give in asking him to be your savior? for those of us who have done that. And you know that one day when Jesus comes and he's going to institute that kingdom, that you're going to be a part of that kingdom, then folks, we need to be the right example of dependence upon him and go to him with our problems. Because there's a lot of problems and difficulties out there. There's a lot of change happening in our country. There's a lot of chaos all over the world and wars and rumors of wars. And we as believers in and of ourselves, we don't have the knowledge and the understanding to be able to handle these things, and we need to go to God and ask him for help. Lord, what do I do? What's my part in this? Lord, my world's being turned upside down by a job that I just lost recently. I have someone in my life who seems to hate me, and I don't know why. Or, Lord, someone that is dear to me just passed away. and I can't make sense of it all. And when we recognize our dependence upon Jesus and we seek his help, his strength, his wisdom, his power, God says, oh yes, you will receive, seek and you will find, persist and knock, and I will answer. And yet even with this promise, sometimes we still doubt our loving Heavenly Father. And so then Jesus then, verses nine through 11, gives us an example that in one sense we really shouldn't need because we should trust that our Heavenly Father will provide in His timing all that we need. But Jesus in His graciousness really gives us a ridiculous illustration here. Actually, it describes two rather cruel practical jokes. Look at verse nine. Or which of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? And I will add then, in Luke 11, five through 13, this teaching is recorded for us. And Luke adds a third question, ridiculous question. In Luke 11, 12, he says, or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. Now, let's make sure we understand what's going on here, because it's really, as we read this, it's hard to understand what Jesus is really saying. Like, who of us would, if our son asks us for a slice of bread, or our daughter, we give them a rock? Like, they wouldn't even, like, if we're trying to fool them, that wouldn't even work. The understanding here, the background for this is at that time, the way that they would bake bread, it was a round loaf, and sometimes small, and sometimes it resembled some of the stones in the rocks in the area that were rounded. And so the cruelty of this then becomes apparent that a father just decides, oh, this will be really funny. Watch this, everybody. My child is going to think that this, because it looks the same, hopefully it doesn't taste the same as a rock, but it looks the same as a stone. So I'm just going to give them this stone and they're going to think it's bread. And you know, they cracked their teeth on or something. Oh, isn't that funny? And if somebody were around, around you that tried that, I hope that you wouldn't laugh. I hope that you would look at them and say, that's cruel. That's terrible. What kind of parent are you? That would be an appropriate response to that. How about the next one? If he asked for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. That doesn't make much sense either. Dad, I'd like some fish. Well, here's a snake. It's like, what? That doesn't even make sense. Well, probably the best interpretation of this is that many times in New Testament times in this area of the Middle East, they would eat eels. And so probably what Jesus is saying is, rather than fish, an eel. And so as they prepare the eel to be eaten and bring it out to the kids, the father or mother replaces that with a live snake. So it looks somewhat similar. And as the kids go to maybe carve off a piece of the eel, the snake bites them and the parent laughs. Isn't that funny? Now, none of us would laugh, right? We would say, that's terrible. Who would do that to their child? Or how about that third incident, that illustration in Luke? He asked for an egg. We'll give him a scorpion. Well, that's another strange one egg scorpion. There's nothing similar really to those Well, if you've actually seen a scorpion and I wouldn't recommend getting too close to them, but I used to live in South Florida in Miami and there are lots of scorpions down there and one of the things is when they're all curled up they almost resemble a ball or an egg and And so this has a picture of a parent somehow carefully taking a scorpion that's resting, it looks like an egg and handing it and putting their child in danger as they think it's an egg and then the scorpion pulls back his tail and uh-oh. I mean again, we look at this and say this is terrible, no parent would ever do this. What's the point? Why would Jesus even state these terrible practical jokes? Folks, isn't it true that we can hear the truths of God's Word and we know these things to be true? Ask and it will be given unto you. And Jesus says that God will respond. He may not respond in the way that we want Him to. He may not give us exactly what we want at that time, but He will respond. He will hear us. And yet, sometimes when really hard things happen, we treat God as if he's a cruel father. Almost as if God would give us a scorpion rather than an egg. Almost as if he would hand us a live serpent rather than food. God, I can't believe you let this happen in my life. You must not be a good father. You're always bringing pain into my life. You don't love me. And in our brokenness, we twist a loving response from a Heavenly Father who is saying, come to me. Stop relying on yourself. Stop relying on your own power. And we twist that. into doubt and lack of trust. And sometimes if we're honest in our really dark moments, we can come to God and expect and treat him as if he's as terrible and as cruel as one of these illustrations. Folks, let's be honest with that. That really is blasphemous, wouldn't you say? because God's already given us the promise that he is a loving Heavenly Father. Maybe we don't understand why he's letting this into our life at this point, but whatever it is, folks, I can promise you, it's not a parent giving a child up to God. Stone over a piece of bread. It's not some cruel trick where he's giving you an a scorpion over an egg But God has purposes for these things and he will do you good in his time and he will make things clear Maybe it'll take eternity for you to understand why he's done some of the things and let some of the things in your life That he is but you can trust him that he's a loving Heavenly Father put all doubt away that he's cruel and angry and That's not biblical. He loves you. He does what's best for you. He's not a cruel parent. So verse 11, if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Those of us that are parents here, if we're honest and we need to be right, I'll be honest too. As much as we love our kids, we don't get it right every time. We mess it up. We sometimes give our kids things that they really don't need. We thought maybe they did. Sometimes we don't give them what they need right away and we're a little slow to respond. But we still have a heart that loves our children and we're trying to do the best that we can, but in this life we're broken and we're not always able to be the parent we want to be. And what Jesus is saying is, if there are those of you that are parents and you make mistakes even when you're trying to do what's right and trying to show love to your kids, don't you think that your Heavenly Father has that same desire in a much greater, amazing way? that he wants to see you have what you need. And he's able to accomplish that in a way that none of the rest of us are. So why do we doubt? We had one of our children, well, a couple times. You guys, you parents know what it's like when you're trying to put small children to bed, right? It's kind of like whack-a-mole sometimes. We don't have this problem. Well, we kind of do have this problem in different ways now. Trying to get them to go to bed, and you tuck them in, and everything's great. Now, you're going to stay in your bed, right? Yeah, OK, good night's sleep. That's great. And you're downstairs trying to talk with your wife or do something that you need to do, and they come down multiple times with lots of excuses. Dad, why are you up? Well, I needed another hug. Oh, how can you not respond to that? OK. But about the third time they come down and ask for hugs, that gets a little old, right? Or they want a snack. Or they want to hug the puppy or the dog one more time. And after a while, it's like, look, I'm trying to be a good father here, but you're starting to really push this thing. But one thing, one thing that if any of the boys came at any time, even whether I should have or not, the one request that I would never argue with is if they ask for a drink of water. It's like, how are you going to argue that? You know, even if it's like three, they come down three, four different times after I put them to bed. It's like, well, I can't, I need to be a good father. If they need water, I need to give them water. And hopefully they're potty trained enough that nothing happens. But we want to do what's best. Why can't we trust our heavenly father who is able to do what's best? That he will provide in his timing. You know, I want to make sure that as we finish up this morning, again, that we don't have a misunderstanding that we get everything that we want or that somehow Jesus is saying that we can manipulate God. In other words, God, you have to give this to me because I am convinced that I need it. So really, many times what we do is we spiritualize our materialism. Lord, I need this, and you need to give it to me, or I'm going to doubt, and I'm not gonna trust you. That's not what Jesus is saying. God will give us the things that we need in his timing, and we need to have that understanding with this, okay? It's not as if with children that we just continue to manipulate and bug and bother our parents over and over and over again until finally they relent. All right, I'll just give it to you. Just be quiet. That's not what God is saying here. That's not what Jesus is portraying here. God will give us the things that we need We seek those things, but he will also many times withhold things that we don't need That same little boy that I talked about earlier that couldn't reach the refrigerator for the milk later on he was able to crawl up and reach things on the table and grab cups and things on the table and Leslie or myself had left a cup of coffee and on the table at some point some morning. And he was deft enough to be able to crawl up into the chair. And that cup of coffee was right close to the edge. And so he grabbed it. Thankfully, he didn't spill it. But before Leslie could stop him, he sipped. And it was coffee. And he said these words, mm, that's good. I'm like a boy after my own heart. But just because then he started asking for coffee. And he thought that he really needed that. But guess what, at less than three years of age, my wife and I knew giving him what he wanted at that point wasn't gonna be helpful. Now today, he outdoes us all, and he's limited to a certain amount of coffee drinks that he's able to make a week. So we're careful with this, but he's much older now, and he gets three a week, and he's coming up, he has his own book now, he reads through, and he's, oh, yeah, here's this coffee drink that I just made, and I'm like astounded, wow, this kid's gonna have a coffee shop when he's 13. but we were careful not to let him have those things until he was at an age where he could enjoy those, but that would be appropriate. And so when we ask God for things, sometimes he may just say, no, that's not appropriate for you to have. That's it. It's immoral. That's wrong. Or he might just say, now's not the time for you to have this. And I'm going to wait. And so you persist in prayer. And in my good timing, I'll allow you to have that. Or he will give that to you immediately, recognizing that you need it. Whatever his response is, folks, we can trust that he is a loving heavenly father that loves his children in perfect love and gives us his ever available grace. He is always ready to hear your prayers. But he wants to know that you're in faith, that you're sincere, that you're not doubting whether he will answer them or not. He wants you to seek him, to call upon him, to say, Lord, truly, I need you. I can't handle life. I can't handle death on my own without you. He wants us to show our dependence on him. You see, when we demand, and we have an independent spirit, oh, I can do this, but Lord, I want this and I need this, and we're a demanding, petulant child, God doesn't obligate himself to answer those kinds of prayers. He might, out of his own grace. But Jesus says here, for kingdom citizens, Your Heavenly Father does hear you. It's one of those perks of being a kingdom citizen of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, is that our Heavenly Father, the creator of the universe, bends his ear and will hear us. Folks, don't ever lose the value or the beauty or the security in that, your heavenly Father will hear you when you pray. Do you believe that this morning? Father, what a glorious truth that Jesus presents to us from this passage. Father, I'm not naive. I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone here who truly does not have relationship with Jesus yet, that has not trusted in Jesus as their Savior, that is not a kingdom citizen, that is headed toward eternal judgment because they're trying to work out life for themselves rather than dependence, full dependence on Jesus. And Lord, I would pray today, Father, I would pray, I ask that you would open their eyes. The Holy Spirit would open their eyes to their need for Jesus. And they would ask in full dependence and trust in Him. And today might be the day that they're gloriously saved and begin a new faith relationship with Jesus that will do them well for eternity.